


When In Greece

by Suzie_Shooter



Category: Atlantis (UK TV)
Genre: Flirting, M/M, Open Relationships, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-09
Updated: 2013-10-09
Packaged: 2017-12-28 22:59:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/997924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suzie_Shooter/pseuds/Suzie_Shooter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason discovers that while his assumptions about Pythagoras might be mostly wrong, things can still turn out very right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When In Greece

"But I thought you _liked_ him?" 

Pythagoras' expression was one of bewildered pleading and Hercules had to forcibly stop himself from relenting. This needed to be said. 

He folded his arms and remained, he hoped, gruffly impassive. 

"I _do_ like him. I'm just not entirely sure I trust him. Especially with - well, something like this."

"What do you mean you don't trust him?" Pythagoras' tone rose into indignancy and Hercules frantically shushed him, not being entirely sure where the object of their conversation currently was. 

"He saved our lives, in case you'd forgotten," Pythagoras continued, to Hercules' relief this time in a loud whisper. "More than once!"

"I know." Hercules sighed. This conversation wasn't going as well as he'd hoped, although Pythagoras hadn't actually thrown anything at him yet, so neither was it going as badly as he'd feared. 

"It's just - well what do we know about him, really? Hardly anything. And what little he has told us makes precious little sense. He drops out of nowhere, and suddenly he's taken over our lives? I'm just saying - " Hercules softened his tone, no longer able to bear the look of conflicted misery on his friend's face. "That what if he suddenly decides to move on again? How do we know that wherever he came from, there aren't people who relied on him like we're starting to? Wondering where in Hades he's got to? Because he never seems to spare a thought for whoever he left behind, does he?"

"He's not like that," Pythagoras said stubbornly. "He wouldn't. Not to us."

"Not even if the Oracle said he had to?" Hercules suggested slyly, then immediately hated himself for the crushed expression it prompted. "I just don't want to see you get hurt, that's all - " 

Hercules broke off abruptly as the door swung open and Jason strode in. He offered a sickly smile that Jason returned with a shade more conviction, and then glared at the back of Pythagoras' head. Even with his back to him, Hercules could tell Pythagoras was beaming at Jason, every word he'd just said forgotten.

Hercules scowled and pushed his way out of the door, muttering darkly about going to the tavern where at least people listened to him.

"Sorry if I, er, interrupted something?" Jason ventured. 

"Oh, ignore him," Pythagoras waved a dismissive hand and pushed the door shut. "He gets over protective."

Jason nodded slowly, settling into a chair and looking up at Pythagoras who suddenly didn't seem to know what to do with his arms and kept folding and unfolding them. 

"It's good though?" said Jason, smiling at him. "To have someone looking out for you. I guess I never really asked how long you two have been friends?"

"Oh, we're a bit more than that," Pythagoras said with a nervous laugh, finally making up his mind to sit down in the chair closest to Jason.

"Right. Hang on, what?" Jason looked at him in surprise, and Pythagoras shrugged, fidgeting with the hem of his tunic.

"Well. We're - lovers. Obviously." 

"Obviously," Jason echoed faintly, wondering what the hell was obvious about it. He'd never so much as seen them kiss. And anyway - 

"But you have separate rooms!" 

Pythagoras just looked at him. "You've seen him come back from the tavern haven't you? If I was already occupying a bed he was heading for I'd have been flattened to a shadow by now." He smiled faintly. "Plus, I prefer my sheets laundered a little more frequently."

Jason was nodding by default now, feeling embarrassed. He'd assumed - how terribly arrogant of him - that Pythagoras had developed a bit of a thing for him. He'd seen his shy smiles, the way Pythagoras tended to follow him round a room with his eyes, the way he found any excuse to touch him: a hand on the shoulder, adjusting a clasp in his clothing, picking feathers from his hair when Hercules had accidentally dropped a basket of chickens on him. But maybe all of that was just his imagination. Maybe Pythagoras was just _nice._

A second thought hit him, and Jason went cold all over. What if he was massively in the way? What if the reason he'd never seen them together was because they felt awkward at having him sleeping on the floor just metres away from them?

He was halfway to his feet and most of his way through a stumbling apology when Pythagoras frowned at him and pushed him back into his seat. 

"Don't be silly. You're not in the way. We like having you here."

"I'm not sure Hercules does." 

"He's just looking out for me. He thinks you're going to break my heart." 

Jason looked up, startled, to find that Pythagoras' normal shy little smile had developed a definite edge of smirk.

"I - I hope I would never do that," Jason managed, giving up all hope at ever being able to follow the direction of the conversation.

"I told him you wouldn't. But he doesn't trust easily. Mostly because people keep trying to kill him, to be fair. When you've got a reputation like his, people keep trying to test themselves against you." Pythagoras crossed his legs, and let his foot nudge deliberately against Jason's shin. 

Jason's instinctive smile at the contact froze on his face as yet another nasty thought occurred to him. "Hercules isn't going to try and kill me is he? I mean - does he think that I'm - going to - make a move on you or something?" Jason recalled the snatch of conversation he'd overheard when he came in. He'd cockily assumed at the time they'd been talking about him, and now he was horribly afraid he'd been right. 

"Are you?" Pythagoras held his gaze, and Jason wondered how he'd ever thought of him as shy.

"I - well, I - not if he's going to kill me, no." Jason thought distantly that that had come out both cowardly and somehow unchivalrous, but it was too late now, and anyway, Pythagoras was laughing at him.

"It's alright. We're not - " Pythagoras paused, trying to find a way of putting it that didn't make it sound bad. He was better with numbers than words, and his tongue got tied all too easily. Especially when Jason was sitting close enough to touch, looking adorably flushed and discomfited. "There's room," he said finally. "For others. We give each other space."

"He doesn't mind?" 

Pythagoras laughed. "When we started seeing each other he declared he would almost certainly be unfaithful to me the first time he got drunk and there was a willing serving girl or pot boy within reach, and that I would undoubtedly end up hating him. This way, there are no recriminations."

" _You_ don't mind?"

"Not right now." Pythagoras' foot was unmistakably rubbing up and down against his leg now, and Jason shifted in his chair, having the awkward realisation that his new loose clothing would be really bad at hiding anything that might - come up.

"Right. Well. Um." Jason swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. The sounds and smells drifting up from the streets below reminded him he was a long way from anything he'd known as home, but there was sunlight spilling in through the shutters turning everything golden, and Pythagoras was still smiling at him. 

"If you're not - I mean - I understand." Pythagoras started to back-track, and Jason realised he'd hesitated too long. 

"No! I mean, yes. I mean - why not." Jason winced at himself, then laughed. "You know what they say. When in Rome and all that."

Pythagoras looked blank. "Where?" 

Jason shook his head, unable to stop the grin spreading itself across his face. "Never mind." He held out his hand, and his stomach gave a pleasant dip when Pythagoras took it without hesitation.

"So, from a man who's been sleeping on sacking for the last few weeks - " Jason got to his feet, drawing Pythagoras gently to him. "Tell me more about these clean sheets of yours."


End file.
